Nigel Farage (full speech at CPAC here: )
“Just think what this country gave in WWI and WWII; think of a massive price America paid to get Europe out of its problems. If America hasn’t done those things, Europe would’ve been unlivable for the last 75 years.”
And what does America get for its sacrifice? Other nations take advantage of us. Our own leaders disrespect and defile our country. We are tired of making thankless sacrifices for other nations. We are tired of being insulted by the elites.
We are also facing possibly the most incompetent government in this country’s history. They unleashed crippling inflation, supply shortages, race war, and skyrocketing crime.
The last thing America needs right now is another foreign conflict that involves a country of seemingly no importance. And so, many conservatives are looking for excuses to ignore the barbaric invasion of a sovereign country by a villainous tyrant. “No big deal,” – they say. “It’s just a corrupt country of no geopolitical importance. Getting involved in another foreign war is just one more globalists’ ploy to destroy America.”
Unfortunately, the excuses they come up with are just dangerous myths. Here are just some of those myths that some people repeat, that need to be explained and confronted, in order for us all to avoid a major catastrophe that is mostly a creation of this administration’s ineptitude.
- Ukraine is a corrupt country run by Neo Nazis
One of Putin’s pretexts for the Ukraine invasion – and that’s the one some Americans are buying into – is that the Ukrainian government is infested with Neo-Nazis who mistreat Russian-speaking citizens. American conservatives that take an isolationist position also claim that Ukraine is a corrupt country we shouldn’t care much about.
First off, Ukraine is a small nation that only recently got its independence from the former Soviet Union, trying to develop a successful economy. Ukraine is a young democracy with its share of problems, but it chose a path of freedom and Democracy.
Russia is a totalitarian society run by a ruthless dictator. Their citizens are subject to constant propaganda, and they are not allowed to criticize their government. Having a thriving Democracy next to Russia is a serious threat to Putin’s regime, and that is the reason he wants to destroy Ukraine.
Regarding the Neo-Nazis: I am not familiar with the cast of the Ukrainian government, and I don’t know if there are any more Neo-Nazis in it than is generally accepted by the civilized society. My friends (some of them Jewish) who still live in Ukraine are not reporting a pressing Neo-Nazi problem. However, no matter who is running Ukraine, it’s up to their own citizens – not to a foreign power – to hold their government accountable. It seems a tad hypocritical to me that the same Americans who wildly oppose US being “the world’s policeman” freely relegated that role to an atrocious tyrant.
- Ukraine invasion is an unimportant regional conflict left over from the time of the Soviet Union; it does not deserve the attention it gets
It is true that there are plenty of regional conflicts around the world (the Donbass region in Ukraine being one of them) that we don’t give a passing thought to. Those conflicts are being fought by guerrilla fighters of the military age. They rarely involve deliberate murder of civilians; even though, sadly, that happens, it’s rarely on a large scale. But the main distinction is those conflicts do not pose the threat to the world order – they only affect the countries involved.
In Ukraine, Putin is destroying cities, indiscriminately bombing civilians, and creating a humanitarian crisis of enormous proportions. The invasion of Ukraine is not a “historically festering regional conflict” – it’s a full-scale attack on a sovereign nation, akin to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The media fully covered that event as an unprovoked attack and a violation of international law, and rightly so. The invasion of Ukraine is no different in scale or intent.
President Trump agrees (see his interview discussing the problem Putin poses to the world here.) Putin re-introduced the threat of a nuclear war – a threat that we haven’t had for decades. Describing a mad man with his finger on a nuclear button as “a regional conflict hyped by the media” is severely misguided.
- Putin’s decision to invade is a rational response to Ukraine’s and the West’s “provocations.” He’ll withdraw whenever Ukraine meets his demands.
This article encapsulates the current state of Putin’s mind – to the extent that it can be encapsulated right now. Putin has no rational demands, nor does he have a realistic “end game” that will end well for all concerned. Putin is not “a rational player” we all believed him to be (and that includes President Trump). He is a mass murderer and a maniac no different from Saddam Hussein, and his intent is the destruction or subjugation of a sovereign nation – not defense of Russia or protection of Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine.
- Putin is conducting “a modest offensive” and he is “minimizing casualties”
While there is very little reliable information coming out of Ukraine from either Russian side or Ukrainian side, it can be established beyond any reasonable doubt that Putin is targeting civilian population. Devastation in Kiev and Kharkiv is enormous. Smaller cities are targeted as well. Millions of people were forced out of their homes by the brutal invasion; others, including elderly and sick, are retreating to the bomb shelters several times a day. You can dispute any individual piece of reporting such as “Russian ship go f$$k yourself” as a piece of propaganda to boost morale; however, the fact that Putin has waged a bloody war – not a “special military operation,” and the fact that Ukrainians are bravely fighting for their freedom is absolutely indisputable.
- Confronting Putin is not in US national interest. We should stay out of the conflict and mind our own business
“Appeasement is a policy of granting political and material concessions to an aggressive, foreign power. It often occurs in the hope of saturating the aggressor’s desires for further demands and, consequently, avoiding the outbreak of war. The most famous instance of the policy in action is during the build-up to World War Two when the major European powers failed to confront German expansionism in Europe.”
Just like Putin, Hitler used “protecting the German-speaking population” of other countries as a pretext for invasion. If history teaches us anything, if not stopped, Putin will continue his quest by possibly invading other countries. If Putin moves on a NATO country – such as any of the Baltic states – the US will not avoid a shooting war.
Also, you should remember that the other villains in the world are watching the US response to Putin’s aggression. That includes Iran and China. If these countries are allowed to use Biden’s weakness to pursue their evil goals, it will create a global crisis. If you think your life is disrupted now because Biden has allowed Putin’s aggression, imagine what will happen if Taiwan is allowed to fall.
Joe Biden’s inept policies brought us to the brink of a nuclear war. His concessions to the enemies of America and his unending domestic blunders strengthened the evildoers and left the world at their mercy. Now, Joe Biden is paying for his stupidity – and so do we. But regardless, we must not allow ourselves to harm our own cause by minimizing a terrible human tragedy and a brutal violation of international law by an evil tyrant.
President Trump did not engage US forces in any new wars, and he tried to end the old ones. But that does not mean President Trump practiced isolationism. He strengthened the US military; he held our allies accountable; he destroyed those who threatened America; he conducted smart diplomacy; he built alliances that benefitted the world, and he conducted domestic policies that strengthened America – not our enemies. President Trump’s policies projected strength that benefitted America; isolationism projects weakness that will hurt it.
This article was originally published in The Right Wire Report.